Mistakes lead to loss for lady Warriors

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ZEPHYR COVE — The way Whittell head coach Tom Esposito sees it, 28 turnovers and 12 fouls equals 40 free points. Those free points added up to 48-24 loss as the girls took on Incline at Whittell High School on Tuesday. “Before the game we talked about the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is going to win,” Esposito said. “And Incline had a real good game. They knocked down a bunch of shots, and their press just took us out of our game.”The Warriors had kept the score close through the first quarter, which ended in an 11-11 tie. But Incline took complete control of the Mount Rose League contest with a 14-2 second quarter that gave the Highlanders a commanding 25-13 lead at the half. Incline, which employs an aggressive full-court press, maintained its defensive intensity after the break, outscoring Whittell 13-6 in the third quarter and 10-5 in the fourth to coast to the 24-point win.“They’re a good pressing team, and we play presses all the time, but tonight we just didn’t. We just had trouble breaking press,” Esposito said. “ We had a lot of open looks. We ran our offense and played as a team, but we just couldn’t get anything to drop.”The exception to that was Amanda Harris, who led the Warriors with 15 points.With the win Incline improved to 9-11 overall and 2-2 in the Mount Rose League. Whittell is 8-10 overall and 1-3 in league.UP NEXT: The girls will travel to North Tahoe (7-8, 1-3) to meet the Highlanders for the second time this season on Friday at 6 p.m. The Warriors cruised to a 37-24 win when they faced the Highlanders earlier this month. Whittell and South Tahoe (7-10, 3-2) will face off Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at South Tahoe High School. “They’re aggressive, they’ve got a couple good shooters and they drive the ball hard, but if we put a good game together it should be fun,” Esposito said. — Sierra Sun sports editor Sylas Wright contributed to this report.